PhD, Associate Professor at the Chair of Television and Radio Journalism, St. Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg, Russia), tv_and_radio@mail.ru

Abstract

The article defines the concept of "fake" in the context of the modern media system development. The reasons of institutionalization of this phenomenon in the work of journalists and in the media in general are being analysed. The author examines trends in the use of the format of "fake" in the practice of modern electronic media (TV and the Internet).

The empirical basis for the analysis of the emerging research issue is the media space reflection of the topic of the events in Ukraine in 2014−2015 and the issue of data reliability (both textual and visual) related to this informational trend, which are distributed through various channels of mass communication. In particular, a network share Lenizdat.ru which implemented a pro-European project "Stop. Lying" which was aimed at discrediting the position of domestic media coverage of Ukrainian events.

The author examines the issue of the trust of the audience in the media in the content of which the trend of "fake journalism" is dominant. This trend is defined as a part of the "show civilization". The author comes to the conclusion about the plausible defamation of the authority of the media which entirely use the principles of the so-called "fake journalism". And this, in turn, affect the general condition of relations between the potential audience and the journalists, who are experiencing a lack of trust on the part of readers, listeners and viewers.